I got in early morning on Thursday and rested a bit. Then Jake and I got up and spent the day relaxing at his Grandparents. We went on a fruitless search for a camera battery for my pink camera and then had dinner and that was pretty much the whole day. That bus trip really takes it out of me so it was a short day. Also shame on Kodak for making their dang batteries so hard to find and for making so many unique models. Really now.
Friday we took Oren and went for a swim in the James. It was totally fun, though cut short by thunder. Jake is so hard headed, I had to plead with him to get out of the river. Blockhead. We made it to the car before the storm really hit and it poured and poured but when we got back to Grandma's it hadn't even rained. After that we went shopping for all the food we'd need for the party. It was a two-part shopping expedition: part 1 at Costco where Jake was a pig in mud and wanted everything he saw and part 2 and Food Lion where he was less enthused. We brought everything and headed back to Grandma's with some Chic Fil A.
Saturday was my big prep day. First I made a carrot cake from scratch, my first scratch cake ever. I followed that up with a buttermilk vanilla cake with blackberry buttercream frosting. Then I got really tired and took a break. THEN I got back up and made Michigan sauce for hot dogs and Jake mixed up some apricot mustard sauce for grilled chicken. By the time this was all done I was very tired.
Blackberry Vanilla Cake
Carrot Cake
Sunday we got up much later than I planned and lugged all the meats, buns cake and whatever else out to a city park called Belle Isle. Its an island in the middle of the James in the middle of Richmond. Something I didn't now about Belle Isle is that there isn't automobile access. We had to carry everything almost a mile out to the picnic shelter for the party. This resulted in two moderately cranky party people. Pretty soon though our friends began to show up and we weren't cranky anymore. Not quite as many people as I'd hoped were able to make it, but those who did were key and we had a great time. The cakes went over well, especially the carrot and Oren took several dips in the river. We stayed until that evening when storms were threatening to get us on the mile walk back to the cars. We made it back with only seconds to spare and said our goodbyes in the parking area. Jake's friends Larry and Tracee had just joined the party so they went back to Grandma and Pete's with us and we hung out for a while there. I was so tired at this point though I had to go upstairs and lay down. I had worked really hard.
Good Looking Birthday Boy
Melissa, Ryan and Tony
Allison
Tony and Kevin
Monday we just relaxed all day and Monday evening Jake took me to Ichiban, his favorite restaurant for sushi dinner. We had a great time there and when we got back Jake's grandfather Pete took us to Best Buy to get Jake Beatles Rock Band, the game he really wanted for his birthday! How exciting because I really wanted that game too. We brought the whole set up back and stayed up until 2am with Jake's little brother Evan playing. Just so you know, I'm an expert at singing Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.
Tuesday was my last day and we spent it relaxing around the house again. We dug up the game Rummikub and figured out how to play it and spent a few hours playing it with Jake's aunt Amy. We also played some more Beatles Rock Band. Then Jake's grandparents got some fresh burgers and we had a delicious dinner of grilled burgers, beans, chips and deviled eggs. Jake finally beat us at Rummikub and he and I got ready for my overnight bus trip back to NYC.
No comments:
Post a Comment